The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association has banned all Gardner High School sports teams from participating in postseason tournaments this winter and threatened to do the same in the spring.

In fact, the MIAA's executive director said Wednesday that he would not renew Gardner High's MIAA membership for 2013-14 if the school does not return the trophy it was given for winning the state sectional swim championship in February.

Gardner's title was revoked in October for allegedly violating MIAA rules. The MIAA demanded then that the school return the trophy. On Wednesday, school officials were given until March 5 to comply or face the stiffer penalties.

In his 34 years as head of the MIAA, Richard Neal said he's never seen a school openly defy a directive.

“We're in a unique position where a member school has simply chosen to defy the board,” Neal said. “This is unprecedented and quite serious.”

In an email sent to Gardner schools superintendent Carol Daring on Wednesday, Neal said: “I write to report that the MIAA board of directors is concerned about the level of defiance associated with Gardner's failure to comply with the board's repeated requirement that an MIAA trophy be returned to the association office.

“Refusing to accept the board findings and resultant consequences at the end of an association process which began a year ago, leaves the board with little choice but to exclude Gardner High School from participation in any MIAA-sponsored winter tournament (affecting all sports).”

So, because the swim trophy was not returned, Gardner's basketball, hockey and indoor track teams will not be allowed to compete in the playoffs this winter, even if they qualify. Gardner's co-op boys' hockey team also includes players from Murdock High, while the girls' hockey team includes players from Leominster, Nashoba and St. Bernard's.

Gardner's 2012 sectional swim title was revoked when the MIAA determined that the Gardner may have broken the MIAA's “bona fide team” rule by allowing swimmers to skip school practices to attend club events.

Mayor Mark Hawke, who serves as chairman of the Gardner School Committee, said then that he disagreed with the MIAA's decision, had no plans to return the trophy and was considering displaying it in his office.

“If they want to come and get the trophy, they will have to pry my cold dead hands from around it,” he said.

Upon learning of the additional sanctions Wednesday, Hawke said the comment he made in October was made lightheartedly and that the MIAA was taking things too far.

“With regard to the trophy, I am the one that uttered the Charlton Heston line 'from my cold dead hands,' ” Hawke said. “It was a joke and most people took it that way. However, I must now plea to the MIAA to 'let my people go.' ”

Hawke said he called Neal on Wednesday and offered to deliver the trophy to MIAA headquarters in Franklin at 10 a.m. today. Hawke said last night he had not heard back from Neal.

“I will hand-deliver their most precious trophy, which I could have replicated at John's Sport Shop in downtown Gardner for $5,” Hawke said. “It is utterly amazing to me how vindictive and petty the MIAA is being. They truly have a mentality of taking their ball and going home if they don't get their way. This is a prime example of a rampant abuse of unchecked power. Shame on the MIAA for punishing innocent kids.”

Neal's decision was supported Wednesday by the MIAA board of directors, who meet next on March 7.

“We're not making this decision; it's the city of Gardner,” Shawsheen superintendent Charlie Lyons said. “It's the adults running their program.”

The frustration was present among the entire board.

“They (Gardner) did it definitely and they did it with purpose,” Douglas Principal Kevin Maines said.

“This is not about compliance,” Dudley-Charlton Superintendent Sean Gilrein said. “It's about defiance.”

Gardner school officials appealed the MIAA's October ruling, but the MIAA only partially reinstated the school's co-operative status, allowing Gardner to host swimmers from other schools.

The MIAA board of directors also made reference Wednesday to old allegations of Gardner using an eighth-grade swimmer last season — a home-schooled student — but Daring said that issue was settled before the MIAA delivered its sanctions in October.

First-year Gardner swim coach Sharleen Goguen said Wednesday her current roster includes 13 athletes, all Gardner High students. Goguen replaced longtime coach Don Lemieux, who resigned after not being allowed to coach the 16-time state champion Wildcats at last year's state meet.

Obviously, the MIAA's postseason ban does not sit well with other Gardner coaches.

“How can the MIAA punish an entirely different team for something another team in another sport did last year,” Wildcats girls' hockey coach Mark Berube said. “They would wind up in court over it.

“I would take this one as far as I could,” Berube said. “I think they're just using it as a scare tactic. They can't punish all these different teams and players who had nothing to do with the problem over something as small as not returning a trophy.”

In November, the MIAA stripped the Gardner High boys' soccer team of 15 points and a Central Mass. playoff berth for using an overage player — a sophomore from Honduras living with a foster family.

Bob Holmes of The Boston Globe and Jim Wilson of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report.